Topics

• About the Albutt One-Name Study
• Variants
• Origin of the surname
• Frequency of the name
• Distribution of the name
• Data
• Contact Details

About the Albutt One-Name Study

My One Name study is a development of my own family history research, which started in 1975. At that time all I knew of my G.G. grandfather, William Albutt was that he was a blacksmith and lived in Birmingham, far to complicated for me to consider researching, until the internet became available to me in about 2000.

The trade of Blacksmith appealed to me, especially as I found his father was one also. Eventually leading me to Stoke Prior in Worcestershire and my earliest blacksmith so far. Interest in an unusual and localised name has led me to register the Albutt one name study.

Records are mostly on paper and will be transferred to computer for storage with the Guild. The study will develop geographically outwards from Stoke prior to neighbouring parishes in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, via Birmingham and the Black Country and beyond….eventually!!!

Variants

Albutt, my family spelling and the commonest variant in current usage, was fimed up about 1840.

Albut seems to be an early variant which no longer appears to be in use.

Allbut seems in less common usage now than it was historically.

Allbutt is the second commonest usage today.

Each of these appear commonly in records from the 1700’s, often dependent on the preference of the vicar or curate, thus one area of the study will be to determine if certain parishes gave rise to a certain variant. I have seen documents which contain different spellings of the same persons name within the one document.

Albot, sometimes Allbot was the spelling commonly used up to about the mid 1700’s in Worcestershire. This same spelling appears also in Cornwall as a separate local name. At this time I have chosen to avoid this geographical disparity by not including this spelling as a separate variant. Where it appears in the same locality as An Albutt/Albut/Allbut/Allbutt reference it will be recorded as spelt.

Also avoided will be Albot’s who were later recorded as Abbot.

It must be noted that the Worcestershire dialect has a strong influence on this surname. The A is soft. R’s are often rolled into other letters, and in the Bromsgrove area the U may be influenced by the Birmingham pronunciation.

My home town of Alcester ( Warwickshire) was often perceived as Ulster when spoken. In a Stoke Prior reference it was written as Aurlcersteur, which shows the rolling R. The Birmingham area U in bus is heard as bUzz.

I have been surprised so far to not have found any confusion between Albutt and Harbutt. Some Worcestershire dialect emphasises H’s which do not exist at the start of words.

Origin of the surname

Various internet sites claim various continental names as the origin for Albutt. These seem to me to be purely guess work.

Parish records suggest that migration took place to industrial areas - Birmingham, Coventry, Redditch and the Black Country, variously from the mid 1700’s, increasing in the 1800’s and then further a field.

The main concentration of earlier references seem to be in the parishes around Bromsgrove, particularly the eastern side.

Frequency of the name

From the 2002 ONS Data

Albutt 613 occurrences Position 9683

Albut 0

Allbut 77 occurrences Position 39021

Allbutt 284 occurrences Position 16986

Distribution of the name

All variants have a limited geographical spread with strong distributions within Worcestershire and Birmingham in both 1881 and 1998.

Additional areas vary for different variants as listed below.

Albutt 1881 also Halifax, Yorkshire

1998 Also counties around Worcestershire

Allbut 1881 Also Dudley and Chester

1998 insufficient data

Allbutt 1881 Also Dudley and London

1998 Also counties north and west of Worcestershire and Devon

Data

Initially data is based around my family history research, but includes all Albutt and variant references from Parish records as listed.

Stoke Prior 1600 to 1810, including Finstall Chapelry

Tardebigge 1780 to 1810

Stoke Prior wills

Stoke Prior Hearth Tax and Tythe extracts

Limited Census references for my family line, Selly Oak and Balsall Heath

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr Graham Long
71 Ilges Lane,
Cholsey,
Wallingford,
Oxfordshire
OX10 9PA
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:
Telephone: 01491 651754

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Profiles of other one-name studies registered with the Guild may be found here.